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TO THK 



Vermont Journal, Connecticut Courant,N.Y. Tribune, Iron Age, 

Buffalo Express, North American & United States Gazette, 

Virginia State Journal, North Carolina Union Banner, 

Brownlow's Knoxville Whig, S. Carolina Leader, 

Missouri Democrat, Nemaha Courier, 

Atchison Free Press, 

Rocky Mountain News, and San Francisco American Flag, 



])V 



; 



D. D. CONE, President 



OF 



THE UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION. 



Eighth Edition, 




PUBLISHED BY 

THE UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION, 
WASHINGTON. 

1867. 






I N TRODUCT ION 



These letters having already appeared in the North American 
and United States Gazette ; Mi—. )uri Democrat ; Buffalo Expre 
Connecticut Courant ; Vermont Journal; Iron Age; Virginia 
S tte Journal; South Carolina Leader; Atchison Free Pre 
N rth Carolina Union Banner; Brownlow's Knoxville Whig; 
N :w York Tribune; Nemaha, Kansas, Courier ; Rocky Mountain 
New - ; San Francisco Flag, and other leading journals, the present 
publication may, perhaps, be deemed superfluous. There are so 
many facts, however, embraced in them, that the issue of this 
edition has been deemed advisable by friends of the industrial 
interest 

Among the commendatorv letters received bv the author, are 
the two following, from E. B. Ward, Esq., President of the 
American Iron and Steel Association, and Hon. R. E. Trowbridj . 
member of Congress from Michigan. 



Detroit, Michigan, March i I . i ■ 

I). D. CONI , I 

Deal Si i -Your pamphlet (letters on the tariff i is received. It i;. a compen- 
dium of well arranged facts favoring protection; and it" generally read, would do 
>d . 

Very respectfully, E. B. WARD. 



House of Representatives, Washington, [uly i , i 

D. D. Cone, Esq.: 

Deal ■ — 1 have carefully read your pamphlet, (letters on the subject of 
American labor, seventh . and have been much gratified with the plain, 

■ very able manner in which you treat the subject. 

I wish a copy of this pamphlet might be placed in the hands of every man in 
\ t, for it is to the people of that region that this sub ne of 

vital imp 

There every clement which enters into the various manufactured articl 
produced; and why the . e various elements should be tl I four thousand 

and return to be combined into an article which is to be consumed >>n the 
luced i> to me incomprehensible. I I n with 

your good work of calling the public attention to this subject. 

Yours, truly, R. E. TROWBRIDGE, M. ( 



i^i?o:>r the 



A Letter to Hon. B. GRATZ BROWN, United States 
Senator from Missouri. 

Washington, Jan. 31, 1867. 
Sir — The bill to provide increased revenue from 
imports, and for other purposes, being before the Senate 
on the 29th instant, you are reported by yesterday's 
Globe to have said : 

' : This question as it stands is. in very truth, a question not so much of 
protection as it is a question of prohibition. It is to exclude from impor- 
tation, and thereby to reduce the revenue derived from the tariff; not to 
increase that revenue by larger collections on imports, thereby to enable 
us to reduce the taxes on internal productions. 

■• I am perfectly familiar with the argument which has been adduced all 
along, that if voit will only give protection to manufacturers you will 
thereby build them up ami enable them to reduce the price of those articles 
which they manufacture ; hut it is a singular characteristic of this whole 
scheme, as now presented in national legislation, that you find to-day 
all these manufacturers, which fur twenty years you have been building 
up, asking higher rates of duly than they did in their infancy. You find 
the manufacturers that go into all th° uses of domestic life, such as the 
iron manufacturers, the wool manufacturers, the worsteds ami cottons and 
chemicals, asking higher rates of prohibitory duty than they have ever 
asked heretofore. If that is to he the result of a continuation of protection, 
I think the sooner we get rid of the system the better. At all events, I think 
it is a very conclusive argument, going to show that their is no truth in 
what is alleged is its general tenor and effect. 

•• I think, sir. that a system of prohibition such as we are asked to enact 
here to-day is neither more nor less than a legalized plunder. It is a 
wrongful taking out of the pockets of one man to put in the pockets of 
another. It is making lawful that which every morality condemns as 
wrongful. It is statutory theft and pillage. That is my judgment ahout 
the whole prohibitory system. We have just emerged, Mr. President. 
from a long and exciting conflict, in which we have labored to get rid of 
one system of oppression We have abolished slavery, in so far as it relates 
to personal bondage, hut. sir, in my opinion, the measure now before you 
in its principle, and to a very large extent in its applications, is neither 
more nor less than the incipient re-establishment of slavery in another 
share. It is a slavery to capital, a servitude which will be just as onerous, 
just as trying to this nation, and just as productive of evil consequences to 
the oppressed classes and sections as ever was any other form or type of 
slavery." 



NORTH AMERK AN AND i NITED STATES GAZETTE. 



Commencing with your first proposition, that the 
bill now before Congress is of a prohibitory character, 
you will pardon me for inviting your attention to the 
following well established facts : 

Smelted copper, the product of our American mines, 
pays into the national treasury a tax of three dollars 
and fifty-five cents per hundred pounds. The bill now 
before you fixes the tax on the same product from foreign 
mines, imported to compete with the consumers of 
American farm products, at only three dollars per hun- 
dred pounds; thereby giving the foreign product an 
advantage of fifty-five rents per hundred over our own. 
A- with copper, so with iron, in its various stages of 
manufacture. The rates fixed in the bill now before 
\,,u are actually less than the internal tax, directand 
indirect, collected on home productioi 

The American farmer hears cheerfully his share of the 
burden of tax made necessary by the slave-holders' 
rebellion. Surelyyou cannot insist that barley, impor- 
ted into this country, shall pay less than twenty cents 
per bushel, the rate of tax fixed by the new hill. 

The average rates of direct and indirect internal tax 
paid by the wool-growers throughout the United States 
cannot ho less than the proposed rates in the new hill 
on foreign grown wool. You certainly cannot for an 
instant entertain the idea of discriminating againsl the 
wool-growers of this country, as you will if the hill now 
before you fails to become a law. 

You will pardon me for calling your attention to the 
error you have fallen into in ascribing the pre-ent infla- 
tions of prices to what you are pleased to term "the 
result of a continuation of protection." 

The last repmt of the Secretary of the Treasury shows 
the balance of trade to have been againsl us to the 
amount of $100,000,000 during the past fiscal year, and 
though the country's product of gold has been since 



NORTH AMERICAN AND UNITED STATES GAZETTE. 5 

1858 not less than $1,100,000,000, it is not probable 
that the stock of gold and silver in the United States is 
larger now than eighteen years ago. 

Our debt to Europe is now estimated by the same 
authority at not less than $600,000,000. Showing but 
$100,000,000 invested in railway securities, it leaves an 
indebtedness of $500,000,000, for which we have nothing 
to show. 

In my letter of 24th March last, published in several of 
our leading journals, I stated that:* 

"Three million six hundred and eighty-six thousand nine 
hundred and twenty dollars ($3,686,920) worth of foreign dry 
goods were thrown iuto the New York market during the week 
ending the 22d of February. 

"Fifty-one million seven hundred and seventy-one thousand 
three hundred and fifty-six (51,771,356,) yards of cotton and 
woolen cloths, were imported iuto this country from England 
alone, during the month of November last. 

"About ninety hundred thousand ($9,000,000) dollars worth 
of iron and steel was imported into this country, during the year 
ending the 30th of June last. 

" A large portion of these goods must be paid for either in gold 
or U. S'. bonds, at about 25 per cent, below par, and nine per 
cent, interest. 

;< Now, I may be permitted to ask, what part of the gold and 
bonds that our policy forces us to send these wealthy British man- 
ufacturers will be paid in turn to American workmen, to be again 
paid to American farmers for food, and American manufacturers 
for clothing ? 

" Great Britain has promised; time and again, to take our grain 
in full payment for all the goods, wares, and merchandise we 
purchased of her. But she has not kept her promise in this or 
any other respect. Whilst pressing her goods upon our market, 

*Published in the Vermont Journal : Hartford Courant : Buffalo Expri -- 
Philadelphia North American and United States Gazette ; Virginia State 
Journal: Charleston, South Carolina, Leader; North Carolina Union Ban- 
ner; Brownlow's Knoxville Whig; Missouri Democrat; Kansas Courier; 
Atchison Free Press; Rocky Mountain News, and San Francisco Flag. 



6 NORTH AMERICAN AND UNITED STATES GAZETTE. 



invading the duties by false ini - and corrupting the venal 
members of our Government, she bought her breadstuffs chiefly 
elsewhere She could buy a little cheaper from the Danubian 
Principalities, where the boors subsisted on black bread and 
worked for a compensation even lower than that doled onl to 
British operatives; or from Egypt, where the half-naked fellah 

gathered luxuriant crops when the Nile fl Is were favorable; or 

from the fields of little Portugal, whose people have been vassals 
of England .-'nice the treaty of Methuen, and have been kept in 
poverty by an abject dependence on British manufacturers 

•• When it is considered that the American manufacturer is the 

American farmer's best and only really g 1 custom t. it is readily 

seen that their interests are identical. When it is considered 
that from sc\ enty-five to ninety-five per cent, of the cost of Ameri- 
can manufactured g Is is paid for American labor, to 1"' paid in 

turn for American fund and clothing, it is difficult to account for 
the apathy exhibited by many of our members of Congress upon 
this all important subject. 

"The effect of this gigantic importation of the products 
foreign labor, foreign food and capital, is seen by the reports of 
the Iron and Steel Association at their meeting at Chicago, in 
May last, and confirmed at their meeting in this city on the 
28th of last month. Out of nine blast furnaces in tin STATE 
OF MISSOURI, making annually about fifty thousand tons 
when in full blast, only three of them are in operation. Ot' four 
blast furnaces near Detroit, only one is in operation. Pittsburg 
has twenty-five rolling mills, with a capacity of producing three 
hundred thousand tons of finished iron and nails per annum ; only 
about one-fourth of them are in operation ; only two of the five 
blast furnaces in the same city being in operation. Reports from 
New York and other district- represented in the convention showed 
a similar depressed condition, with hardly an exception. 

•• A comparison between the two past years shows a decrease ol 
over thirty per cent in the production of iron in the United States 
Of 1 18 I'm Hi.-. - and rolling mills reported, only 86 are in opera- 
tion, leaving 62 of our largest American iron works idle, while 
the furnaces of Great Britain are all in full blast, thus throwing 
thousands of American workmen out of employment. 



NORTH AMERICAN AND UNITED STATES GAZETTE. 7 

'•Let it be remembered in this connection that one hundred 
thousand employed workmen in the American manufactories 
furnish a market for more American farm produce than the whole 
British nation. With our unemployed workmen the case is 
different ; they crowd other avenues of employment, especially 
the agricultural, where instead of being purchasers they become 
competitors." 

You were, Mr. Senator, for many years, an editor of 
a leading daily newspaper. In that business you enjoyed 
an absolute monopoly. By no possible means could a 
St. Louis newspaper be manufactured in a foreign coun- 
try to be imported into this. The only competition you 
had to contend with was at home. 

The control of the domestic market was thus secured 
to you beyond peradventure by a law of necessity that 
can never be repealed. In no possible case could the 
balance of trade in daily newspapers be against you. 
Such being the case, did prices advance? 

On the contrary, the newspaper proprietors of the 
country being secure from the untaxed competition from 
abroad, find that the effect of a well regulated home 
competition is to bring the price of newspapers within 
the reach of all. 

But the exclusive monopoly of the home market en- 
joyed by the newspaper manufactures is not asked for 
by the manufacturers of any other product. 

Give them but an equal chance in their own markets 
with their foreign competitors, like that contemplated 
in the bill now before Congress, and you can rest assured 
that a steady home competition will bring prices to the 
lowest living rates. 

Mr. Senator — We have just emerged from a long 
conflict, in which we have, at an expense of five hundred 
thousand lives, and ten thousand million dollars, abol- 
ished American slavery. 

The share you bore in the conflict is one that any man 



8 ROBTfl AMERICAN AND DNTTED STATES GAZETTE. 

may be justly proud of. But the policy you now advo- 
cate, if fully adopted by our Government, will reduce 
the laborer in our mines and manufactories to a condition 
as deplorable as that of the same classes in England, 
Ireland, or Siberia. 

It will bring our western farmers into direct compe- 
tition with the half-naked barbarians of South America. 

Without disrespect, 1 may say that your policy will, 
so sure as night follows day, reduce our whole laboring 
population to a condition of servitude but little better 
than that from which we have, at so great a cost, but 
partially rescued the blacks of our country. 

With great respect, 1 have the honor to remain 

Your obedient servant, D. 1>. CONE. 

To Hon. B. Gratz Brown. I. s. s. 



FROM WASHINGTON. 
Correspondence Philadelphia North American and U.S. oa/.kttk. 

Washington, Feb. 1:5, 1867. 

The lobbies of Congress and the hotels fairly swarm 
with agents of the British manufacturing interest, who 
button-hole members al every turn, introducing dissen- 
sions at every opportunity, and with most devilish 
assurance sowing falsehood broadcast. 

These brilliant conversationalists are directing their 
energies particularly againsl our iron interest. They 
deeply sympathize with our trans-Mississippi railway 
enterprises, representing thai those roads are with great 
difficulty supplied with iron from the distant markets 
of Philadelphia, New York. St. Louis, Chicago, and 
Western Pennsylvania, and therefore should he supplied 



NORTH AMERICAN AND UNITED STATES GAZETTE. 9 



from the more convenient market of Great Britain. It 
seems almost incredible that such representation should 
be for one instant entertained, much less believed ; but 
strange as it may seem, they are actually made the 
basis of legislation affecting the interests of millions. 

We are gravely told that English railroad iron can 
be brought from British ports " all the way to Omaha, 
Nebraska, by steam vessels ; while American iron must 
be transported by railroad from the interior of Penn- 
sylvania to Omaha, at great expense and much delay." 
Of course these well-paid falsifiers omit to state that 
iron can be shipped from Pittsburg to Omaha all the 
way by water, without change of vessels, saving thereby 
three thousand miles of transportation and two tran- 
shipments. We are told that a given amount of 
English iron will pay so much revenue into the national 
treasury, as though the same amount of American iron 
would pay less revenue, to say nothing of the entire 
profit of manufacturing distributed at home instead of 
abroad. 

We are supplied with tables showing the-cost of iron 
in England and Colorado, and the fact that American 
iron is higher in the latter place than English iron is 
at home, is urged as a reason why we should adopt a 
policy that looks to the use of English iron among us 
altogether. 

The principal occupation of the free trade agent is to 
inveigh against what he is pleased to term our protective; 
or "prohibitory" policy; falsely asserting for the one 
hundred thousandth time that our present condition is 
the result of the continuation of a protective policy. 

Now I don't think space wasted in proving the falsity 
of such statements. 

What are the facts of the case? We have not had a 
protective policy for at least eighteen years past, during 
which period the real balance of trade with foreign 



Ill 



\"l;Tll AMERICAN AND UNITED STATES GAZETTE. 



nations has been against us, <>n an average, of one 
hundred millions per annum, (s1imi.imiii.ihmi. | 

This enormous amount represents the sum that we, 
as a nation, have bought abroad over and above the 
amounl sold, to be paid for in gold and national not - 
with interest . 

It is admitted, that though the products of ( ialifornia 
gold mines have not been less than xl, 100, 000,00". 
there is no more gold in the United States at present 
time than eighteen years ago. To this sum add 
syniuiiMi.iHHi bonds' indebtedness abroad, contracted 
during the period, and you have the $1,800,000,000. 

The following table shows the total low to the capital 
wealth of the United States, during the past eighteen 

years, by the exportation of specie and 1 ds, and the 

increase each year upon capital wealth of 8.5 per cent, 
compound interest, being the average annual increase 
of United States wealth from 18.~>0 to lsco. as sriven by 
the census. 



CAPITAL u i:ai.i II KACH YEAR. 



Capit'l wi 
added each 
year. 



L00,< ,000 

100,000,000 
100,000,000 
100,000,000 
100,000,1 

Inn. 1,000 

I 

100, 

100,1 

100,000, 

NIK,. 

Inn 000,000 

100, ,000 

,000 

I'm. 

100,000,000 

Inn. 



Pte\ ious capital 

wealth and m- 

r thereon. 



InS 

226 

353! 

492, 

642 

806 

1,175, 

I 



2,121, 
2, 109, 
2,723, 
3,063, 

- 



".tin. 

■it:.: 

951,412 
537,282 
902.950 

124,357 
509,927 
608,270 
92 1,972 

226,905 
201,191 
< > 7 : ". . i: : • J 



I otal capital 

wraith capable 
ofincrease ea< h 
year. 



I'M!. ,111111 

208,500,1 

326,222,500 

1,951,412 

592,537,282 

7 12,902,950 

906,049,700 

1,083,063,924 

1,275,124,357 

1,483 

1,709,C08,270 
1,954,924,972 
2,221,903 

l B86.549 

1,226,905 

3,163,201,191 

j. '>:::. - :i j 

1,521 



Increase upon Total capital 
cap'l wealth wealth I 
8.5 percent. the republic 
cuh year. each year. 



I, 

17.T-'J.:hh. 

- 

50,365 
146,750 

77. Ml 1,224 

92,1 

108,385,570 
126,0 - 
1 15,316,702 
166,168 1 
188,792 
213,340,356 

101 
300 

245. 159 



Ins. 

226, 
642, 

1,175, 

- 

2 I'M 

J. 7^::. 
3,063, 



'.CM 1-2 

924,972 
903,594 

886 

226,905 

201,101 

o7::. 2:^ 

■:\<\<.:.:\ 



NORTH AMERICAN AND UNITED STATES GAZETTE. 1 1 



RECAPITULATION. 

Bonds indebtedness contracted during past eighteen years.... $700,000,000 
Gold and silver exported same period l,100,000,o<iu 

Balance against United States §1,800,000,000 

Total increase in 18 years, taking census authority 2,460,544,980 

Total loss United States Capital wealth 18 years $4,266,544,980 

Our illustrated journals are filled with accounts of a 
wonderful industrial exposition now in preparation in 
Paris, and expressions of surprise that similar buildings 
are not in course of construction in some city in the 
United States. 

I respectfully submit the above table to all such 
inquiries. If a small moiety of the four thousand mil- 
lion dollars in money and interest that our people have 
sent to Europe had been retained at home, perhaps there 
might have been a similar exposition in some American 

city. 

At the Paris Industrial Exposition, the United States have space 

alotted square feet 10,978 

Italy 13,750 

German States 74,184 

Russia 

GreatBritain " 75,467 

It will be seen that the industrial interests of Germany 
are estimated at over six times the importance of those 
of the United States. The managers wisely judging that 
a nation which run in debt four thousand million dol- 
lars in eighteen years could not have much to show 

of its own productions. 

D. D. C. 

■ « ■ 

FROM WASHINGTON. 
Correspondence Philadelphia North American and Q. s. Gazette. 

Washington, May 19, 1800. 

Had that magnificent pedler, Sir Morton Peto, but 

known that two-thirds of the newspaper correspondents 

in this city were desirous of doing his work gratis, he 

might have saved the expense and trouble of making a 



12 NORTH AMERICAN AND UNITED STATES GAZETTE. 

book to ]■]■« i\ c 1'n-c t rade good for America, and protection 
the very thing for England. 

Excepting your correspondent and a few others, all 
the gentlemen of the press in this city are either in full 
sympathy with the intriguers against our industrial 
interests or strangely oblivious to their course. Else 
why lias Congress been encouraged to delay the reduc- 
tion of the crushing war tax until too late to take effect 
this year? And now that the outrageously delayed 
Revenue bill has at length seen the light, why is there 
not a greater reduction made? 

The fact ought not to be longer disguised that the 
last and present Congress have both neglected our 
industrial interests in the most shameful and inexcusable 
manner. And now that the subject is before it, mem- 
bers are frittering away time in discussing details, 
having passed entirely over the principal question, 
whether an overtaxed or lightly taxed nation raises a 
revenue the easiesl . 

The Special Commission for examining the sources of 
national revenue, and the means of collecting the same. 
have been over the whole ground, and clearly pointed 
how and where the burden of our internal taxation was 
terribly oppressive to our industrial interests, almost 
without exception making us the heaviest taxed nation 
on the face of the earth — paying a tax of some sixteen 
dollars per head to our total population— one-third 
greater than that paid by Creat Britain, and double 
that paid by the French people. 

The Commission did not rest here, however: they 
clearly pointed out the means by which Congress might 
at once relieve the people of the mosl burdensome and 
crushing features of the war tax, without endangering 
the revenues of our country. Bui Congress has, in its 
wisdom, seen tit to delay this all important subject, five 
and one-half precious months, using, meanwhile. " the 



NORTH AMERICAN AND UNITED STATES GAZETTE. 13 

contumacy of the President" as a cloak to cover up its 
own sins of omission. 

I am very well aware that I am laying myself liable 
to the terrible charge of " copperheadism" -of " trying 
to make favor with the President," and other similar 
charges which are freely hurled at any daring Repub- 
lican who insinuates that Congress is to be held respon- 
sible for anything. But the lobbv schemes on foot in 
this city for depleting the national treasury of hundreds 
of millions — the reports from all parts of the country 
of hard times, high prices of living, with incommensu- 
rate means of obtaining it, all impel me to enter this 
protest against the ruinous delay on the part of Congress 
of a duty which might, could, and should have been 
performed in December last. 

The Republican policy of 1861 has been neutralized 
by the internal revenue tax made necessary by the 
Democratic rebellion, by the bonded warehouse system, 
and kindred inventions of the enemy. It is high time 
that our Republican Congress should extricate our 
industrial interests from their present perilous position. 
We cannot remain where we are ; we must go forward 
or backward. Upon this point Mr. Senator Sprague, 
in his speech of February 17, says : 

' ' Sir, the measure that is endeavored to be perpetuated upon the industry 
of* the country is one of the same system and plans that produced the 
monopoly of slavery upon your political system. For years you gave 
liberty some strength and slavery some strength, and you continued to 
keep them about even until — you know the result. You have had a policy 
of tariff and a policy of free trade ingrafted upon your industrial system. 
You must accept one or the other. One or the other of those systems 
must prevail, for both cannot succeed. 

" It is impossible for you to ship your corn or your wheat to any extent 
to France or to England. To-day the juice of wheat in France is $1 a 
bushel: in England $1.09. If you are willing to sell your wheat for 80 
cents, thev will sell it tor ~:> cent's. The people engaged in those countries 
in that occupation must live by it. ami if they cannot live by it at a high 
price, thev will live by it at a lower price; so that the agricultural interests 
of this country must' depend for their success upon the markets which we 
have within our own limits and upon our border.* 

"There were imported last year eight hundred thousand boxes, forty 



II K0RTB AMERH AN AND I SITED -I \ 1 BS GAZETTE. 



thoosand tons, of iron, al a cost of $12,000,000 to the consumers of this 
country. That mon for the payment of the industry, the manufac- 

turing skill, the commerce, and all the appurtenances of trade in other 
countries. I challenge contradiction to the position I take, that the result 
of this system has so operated to che growth of the manufacturing 

inter. sts of this country in that respect < and that one article is a represen- 
tatii i drive out its competition, to occupy its 6eld, and then exl 

from the consumptive abilities of the country this enormous profit. My 
experience is that it is far better to do business with, and t<> legislate for a 
people and among a people that are prosperous, happy, and enjoy life, 

liberty, and happiness, than it is among a i pie wh i occupy the revi 

position. 

"Mr. Pr< it' I can ever see the time when the New England system 

■ it' industry becomes the system of every State in the Union, it will be the 
happiest day of my lit<-: and whatever aid it may be in mypower to give, 
I shall always be ready to extend, and to dei ote my time and attention t'> 
that purpose. 1 desire that, because I desire to extend the prosperity of 
my own State and section, and to introduce that prosperity into every 
other State nf this Dnion. 1 know the benefit that it confers upon the 
people in \\ hose limit- those intei i and protected. I know 

thai ever> interest of that people is made better ; that their morals, their 
religion, their education, their desire to occupy higher grounds and pi 
tions in life, everything that goes ti> enoble men and women receivi 
-tart from these industrial occupations; and it is because of that reason, 
among others, that 1 would, if it was in my power, push every manul 
turing and mechanical interest of New England into the western and middle 
States that they might enjoy the benefits and the strength which th 
Stat.- are receiving to-day. I desire that New England should introduce 

her system occupations and businesses that would produce the 
i 14,000 000 ol goods that are mm brought into this country from abroad. 
There are fields enough for many New Englands, if properly directed, 
within this country. If the money which is now permitted to leave our 
borders were retained in the United State-, there is business enough for many 
New Englands in the production of articles not now known to our country." 

1 have made this extract from Mr. Sprague's spi ''ch, 
longer, perhaps, than your space will admit, to refute 
the copperhead Democratic allegation thai New England 
and Pennsylvania statesmen only desire protection for 
their own interests, and because he is one of the few 
members who do no! occupy the floor of Congress for 
buncombe. 

yours, as ever, I >. 1 ». I Ione. 



k— The accuracy of this statement is well established bj 
English papers, which state that the wheat crop grown in the United 
K dom will amount to about 144,000,000 bushels. The amount 
required for consumption during the present 3 ear will be aboul 20 

bushels : leaving a deficiency of about 25 per cent., or 56, ,000 bushels, 

i" be supplied from Egypt, Portugal, Russian possessions, United States, 
and other wheat-grow ing countries. It ma\ thus be safely calculated that 
our farmers, if they will sell cheap enough, can furnish Great Britain with 
about one-fortieth part of the wheat Bherequin 



NORTH AMERICAN AND UNITED STATES GAZETTE. 1 ~> 



FROM WASHINGTON. 
t orreapondence Philadelphia North American and U. S. Gazette. 

Washington, July 12, 1866. 

My letter of .May 19, published in the North Ameri- 
can 21st same month, characterising Sir Morton Peto " a 
magnificent pedler," was rather sharply criticised by a 
few of his admiring friends in this city. I have nothing 
to take hark, but rather add to his title which should 
read: "Sir Morton Peto, the magnificent pedler and 
British dry goods advertising agent."' 

That Sir Morton should have the proposed addition 
to his title is fully shown by the following remarks 
made by Hon. John A. Griswold, on the floor of the 
House, yesterday : 

"Now, what I said was, and I repeat it, that the manufacturers of rail- 
road iron in this country cannot to-day compete with foreign manufacturers. 
I said further, that a committee had been appointed by the Iron and Steel 
Association of England to attend to the tariff of this country. I caused to 
he read at the clerk's desk certain documents, and now, in confirmation, 
I ask the clerk to read the letter which 1 send tip.'' 

The clerk read as follows : 

"United States Consulate, 

"Tower Building, South Water Street, 
" Liverpool, April 10, 18G6. 
" Dear Sir — 1 enclose you the Parliamentary Blue Book on Trade and 
Navigation. 

"They are making great efforts on this side to repeal our tariff and 
admit liritish goods free of duty. If effort and money can accomplish it, 
you may resl assured that it will he done The work is to be done through 
the agents of foreign houses in Boston and New York. Their plan is to 
agitate in the western States and to form free-trade associations all over 
the country. 

" If the people were over here, and could see one half that I do, they 
would open their eyes. No stone will be left unturned to break down our 
manufactures. Sir Morton Peto has written a book to show that we are 
only tit in grow produce, and that England should do our manufacturing. 
This book will lie circulated by the thousands in the western States. 

••Yours. &c, Thomas II. Dudley." 



THE REBEL DEBT. 

Parties in this city interested in "Confederate secu- 
rities" express a confident belief that if the Democratic 
scheme of the incorporation of the Federal and Confed- 
erate debt fails, some of the Southern State governments 



I l'> NORTH AMERICAN AND UNITED STATES GAZETTE. 



may find it To their interest to pay the indebtedness 
contracted, in their own defence: or, in plain English, 
hope that the holders of Confederate bonds will yet 
realize on them. These financiers will need watching 
for some time to come. 

The English, ( lonfederate and 1 democratic scheme for 
breaking down one free-labor interests, and providing 
for the payment of the rebel debt, is respectfully com- 
mended to tli^ attention of loyal voters throughout the 
Union. 

TIIK INDIAN QUESTIOH 

Your yesterday's article upon the proposed change in 
the Indian Bureau, has created a commotion among the 
benevolent individuals who endure the task of looking 
after "destitute Indians." 

Your suggestion that " we need a system of regulated 
economy in all departments of government, and to make 
one dollar everywhere do the duty of two," doesn't meet 
the views of the Indian Bureau, their plan being to 
make live dollars do the duty of one, judging from a 
statement read in the Senate on the 3d inst. by Senator 

Sherman, which was as follows: 

"On the Lst of July. L865, when the military authorities ceased to have 
authority to feed refugee Indians, there was an immense surplus of flour 
and corn en hand at Fori Gibson amounting to as much as all that has 
Bince been issued to pauper Indians in that country. These stores the 
commanding officer al Fort Gibson offered to turn over to the Superintendent 
of Indian Affairs at $8 50 per barrel for Hour. an. I $2 per bushel tor corn. 
Instead of making this purchase, the Superintendent went t.> Leavenworth 
ami entered into contract with McDonald, Fuller & Sells, (the son of the 
Superintendent, | at $8 per bushel for corn, ami $34 per barrel for flour. 
This contract was let. as wc arc informed ami believed, without the requi- 
site advertisement, on the pretence that there was not time to advertise. 
The most of the Hour furnished under this contract was sent by steamboat 
from St. Louis, costing the contractors aboul $12 ami the Indian Depart- 
ment $34 per barrel while a large amount of the flour offered by the War 
Department to the Interior at $8 per barrel was being -nipped down the 
Arkansas from Fort Gibson to Little Rock. The corn furnished bj the 
cont under this contract was part bought from the Indians at $2 per 

bushel, ami part bought of the militarj authorities at Fort Gibson by one 
McKee, « ho i- understood t<> have been the agent ami partner of McDonald, 
Fuller ,\ - i eighteen cents per bushel, ami turned over to the Super- 

intendent at $8 per bushel. The gross amount of these supplies we are 
unable to Btate, but are satisfied that it was Beveral hundred thousand 
dollars; and we have information that it lias all or nearly all been paid." 
— UI"':\ July •!. 



NORTH AMERICAN AND UNITED STATES GAZETTE. 17 



The above is only a portion of the statement which 
embraced some twenty similar charges of fraud, filed 
with the Senate Finance Committee. 

An appropriation of $500,000 was pushed through 
Congress in January last to feed destitute Indians in the 
south-west. Another appropriation of the same size 
was stuck in at the last minute by Senator Doolittle to 
the regular Indian Appropriation bill. It has passed 
the Senate, and now awaits the action of the House. 

I am informed, by those whose honesty and means of 
obtaining correct information cannot be doubted, that 
the Indians for whom these appropriations are made do 
not get 25 per cent, of the amount, and furthermore, do 
not need anything. 

It is high time that this practice at buying flour at 
$34 per barrel, and giving it to Indians who raise more 
grain than they can use, was put a stop to. 

With great respect, D. D. Cone. 



Note. — While I oppose the appropriation of money for the benefit of 
contractors, like the above-mentioned, there are a large number of really 
just Indian claims upou our Treasury that ought to be paid. 

Some thirty-five years ago the insatiable demands of the slave oligarchy 
forced the civilized Indians of Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, and Ten- 
nessee to sell their lands in those .States — much of them improved farms — 
and remove to the tract now known as the Indian Territory. 

Our Government contracted to pay a specified sum for their lands, part 
of which has been paid, and the funds used by the Indians — Choctaws. 
Chicasaws, Creeks, and Cherokees — to support their schools, which equal 
any in the South : but a large portion of the indebtedness has never been 
paid, appropriations for the purpose having been deferred from year to 
year. 

There is no just reason for deferring the payment of this class of really 
just claims any longer. It is not difficult to discriminate between the 
just and fraudulent claims: but our Government has, partly through 
carelessness, and partly through the influence of a most atrocious lobby, 
paid, for most part, the doubtful claims, leaving the just and undoubted 
to be deferred from year to year. 

There is no justice or reason in this. The unbearable exactions of the 
lobby "Attorneys" should not be complied with: for their influence 
upon Congress is decidedly on the decline. We should certainly pay the 
Indians what we honestly owe them — nothing more is required. 

D. D. C. 



THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE. 



MORE ABOUT THE STURDY BEGGARS. 

Correspondeact- "f tin- N. Y. Trihi st 

Washington, April 28, isr.0. 

The appearance of my letter in The Tribune of Janu- 
ary 30, protesting against the gift-book ami seed man 
abuse which has crept under the wings of our Govern- 
ment, created some little commotion among the sturdy 
beggars; and its publication in The Hartford ( 'mi raid. 
The Philadelphia North American, The Missouri Demo- 
crat, The Atchison Free Press, The Colorado News, and 
The San Francisco Flag, carried consternation into the 
ranks of the enemy. 

The abuses nourish, however, and will continue bo to 
do so long as Congress continues to APPROPRIATE money 
for the purposes of purchasing seeds, printing books, or 
making clothing even, for a tree distribution among 
the thousands ready to take whatever they can gel at 
others' cost. Several ambitious patriots have expressed 
a desire for a liberal appropriation for the purpose of 
erecting a huge < b.veniment newspaper establishment, 
the productions of which to be distributed, under frank 
of members, free to whoever might desire a newspaper 
without the inconvenience of paying for it : another 
desires a Liberal appropriation to buy up the stock <>( 
all the Telegraph Companies in the country. 



NEW YORK TRIBUNE. 19 

You have often commented upon the enormous amount 
of money expended in Government printing ; hundreds 
of thousands of dollars more than necessity requires. 
Now, while I am in favor of a judicious expenditure of 
money in public printing, I am entirely opposed to the 
publication of expensive books for indiscriminate distri- 
bution as at present carried on. For instance, the 
Report of the Census of 1860is published in four volumes, 
the last volume being now nearly ready for the binder. 
These volumes cost, so I am informed by the officer in 
charge at the Interior Department, about $12 each, 
and are circulated free by the tens of thousands. I 
have seen these $12 volumes for sale at paper rag stores in 
this city at seven cents per pound before they had been 
from the press a month! I may almost say that they 
went direct from the Government press back to the 
paper-mill. Millions of dollars of the people's money 
is thus absolutely thrown away. 

Another instance is the seedman's division of the 
Department of Agriculture, the original intention of 
which was to distribute a few samples of choice seeds 
of rare production to different parts of the country to 
introduce and foster the cultivation of new productions, 
but which has grown into an erroneous abuse, a mere 
machine for the free distribution of tons and tons of 
miscellaneous seeds, purchased with the people's money 
in every direction. I have received 10 packages of 
these seeds, which I forward to you, as samples, by 
express, the mails being too much incumbered by 
franked matter to render it certain you will get them 
by that conveyance. 

Though immense amounts have already been dis- 
tributed, I see that the Department has a "few more 
left." A morning paper states that: 

"On Wednesday, about 1 o'clock, the first floor of the agricultural 
seed-room on F Street, between Sixth ami Seventh, gave way, letting 



2 < » NEW FORK TRIBUNE. 



down aboul three tons of seed to the basement. Mr. McDonald, one of the 
employees, went down with the floor, and received a few slight bruit 
The seed being in bags, the damage was only to the building." 

Aii additional appropriation will doubtless be ncedeil 
to procure a store-house sufficiently strong to hold the 
•■ tons of seed' sufficient to supply a constantly increas- 
ing demand. 

I am well aware that our present Congress is 
immaculate ; but it must hear the sole responsibility of 
these abuses. So long as that body appropriates the 
people' 8 money for useless expenditure, so long will the 
money be thus expended. And in this connection would 
it not be well to remind that body of wise men that the 
people are patiently waiting for a Blight reduction of 
the war tax, and a slight increase of import duties on 
certain productions of foreign labor, foreign food and 
capital ? 

D. D. C. 




FR03f 






Copperhead, Democratic, and British Interests in the 
Lobby of Congress— One more blow at the Industrial 
Interests of the United States— The Grain Interests- 
Barley and Wheat— The Iron Interest, &c. 

special correspondence of The Missouri Democrat. 

Office United Press Association, 

Washington, April IT, 1866. 

Editors Missouri Democrat — The combined British 
Copperhead and " late Confederate" interests, so 
strongly represented in the lobby of Congress, has made 
another demand, backed up by the usual arguments, for 
the destruction of one more branch of our industrial 
interest.. 

Not content with oppressing the Agricultural interest 
of the United States indirectly, by destroying the far- 
mer's only good customer, the American manufacturer, 
the copperhead free-traders now seek to undermine the 
farming interest directly. Some ten years ago, 
before the cost of the Democratic rebellion made economy 
with our people a necessity, our government, under a 
democratic administration, gave, through the ''Recip- 
rocity Treaty," to Canada, the privilege of supplying 
the market of this country with nearly all the barley we 
needed. 

The abrogation of the " Reciprocity Treaty" places 
a tax of fifteen cents per bushel on all imported foreign 
grown unhulled barley, and one cent per pound on the 
hulled. 



22 MISSOl Kl DEMOCB \ T. 



This small imporl tax od foreigD grown barley is 
very much less than the direct and indirect tax our 
American tanners pay for the support of the G-overn- 
ment, on the same product of American growth. JTel 
small as this is, the democratic copperhead free-trader 
is vociferous for its repeal. 

I have heard it urged here at the Capitol of our 
country, this seventeenth day of April, eighteen hundred 
and sixty-six, that the fanners of the United States 
could not supply sufficient barley for the use of the 
people — that our soil is not suitable — we did not under- 
stand its cultivation — that a tax of fifteen cents per 
bushel mi foreign grown imported barley would give 
the farmers of the United States monopoly — that Cana- 
dian farmers could grow barley cheaper than Americans, 
and therefore Congress should admit Canadian barley 
free of tax. The same copperhead democratic authority 
also holds that the tax-free and half-naked barbarian 
of South America can grow wool and furnish wild 
cattle hides cheaper than the farmers of the United 
States. 

Hence it is, that foreign grown wool imported into 
this country pays a tax of only about three cents per 
pound, and hides ten per cent, ad valorem : being less 
than one-fourth the direct and indirect tax paid on the 
same article of American productions. 

What 1 have written of the three above named articles 
applies to a majority <A' the products of American 
industry. The Republican policy of 1861 has been 
neutralized by the internal revenue tax, made necessary 
by the copperhead Democratic rebellion, the bonded 
wan house system, and kindred inventions of the enemy. 
It is high time that our Republican Congress should 
extricate oiii' industrial interests from its present perilous 

position. 

We cannot remain as we arc must go backward 



MISSOURI DEMOCRAT. 23 



or forward. The American farmer must rely mainly 
on the home market, and when we foster and protect 
that, the farmer is protected. A few million bushels of 
grain can of course be exported annually to Europe to 
make out a deficiency. Late English papers state that 
the wheat crop of the Kingdom of Great Britain will 
amount to about 144,000,000 bushels. 

The amount required for consumption during the 
present year will be about 200,000,000 bushels; leaving 
a deficiency of about 25 per cent., or some 56,000,000 
bushels to be supplied from Egypt, Russian Possessions, 
Portugal, United States, and otlicr wheat growing coun- 
tries. 

It may thus be safely calculated that our farmers, if 
they will sell cheap enough, can furnish Great Britain 
with about one-fort i vtli part of the grain she requires. 

So much for the often repeated buncombe declaration 
that "our boundless prairies will furnish food for the 
world." The last word to be pronounced with a roll 
of the tongue, and a nourish of the uplifted right hand. 

"Our boundless prairies" may be able to furnish food 
for the world. But supposing the world don't want to 
buy? The American farmer will then, as heretofore, 
be obliged to look mainly to a home market, and the 
sooner we realize this truth the better. 

Yours, as ever, D. D. Cone. 

Xote. — Though barley occupies a subordinate position in American 
agriculture it nevertheless brings a higher price per pound than wheat, 
and is one of the most profitable products of the soil. The production ot 
it in the country should therefore be encouraged rather than depressed. 
Millions (if bushels arc annually imported that should he raised at home. 

There lias been ,i very rapid increase in the production of barley. In 
1850, Illinois, Indiana', Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, 
Missouri, Ohio, and Nebraska, produced only ?17,168 bushels. In ten 
years the production was increased to 4,472,000 bushels: and the present 
production cannot be less than six million bushels annually in the above- 
mentioned States alone. The increase in some of the States has been over 
one hundred per cent, since 1856. 

Barley can be and is raised in every State in the Union in sufficient quan- 
tities to supply the domestic demand, free traders to the contrary notwith- 
standing. 



2 1 MISSOUBI DBMO( RAT. 



FROM WASHINGTON. 



Office United Press Association, 

Washington, January P>, 1866. 

Correspondence o I the Missoi ai Democeat. 

It Is to be hoped that Congress will pay due attention 
to the imperative needs of the industrial interests of the 

country. If we are to be saved from a financial crash. 
ten fold worse than that of 1857. prompt and thorough 
action is requisite. 

1 understand certain Western Members of Congress 
have expressed a determination to oppose any altera- 
tions in the tariff likely to secure home industry 
against the effects of foreign competition. 

Now 1 beg leave to suggest that the "yeas and 
nays' upon these questions, as they are taken, lie 
carefully noted and spread before the people : and. 
further, to assure Western Members of Congress 
that the market for Western farm produce is not. at 
the present time, by any means too good, for 1 learn 
from the Galena (Illinois) (rnzette that corn is again 
being used as fuel in preference to sending it four thou- 
sand miles to a foreign market. 1 quote from the 
Gazette as follows : 

"We understand thai manj of tin- people of Warren ami other towns, 
are using corn for fuel. We had a conversation with an intelligent 
gentleman who has been burning it, and who considers it much cheaper 
than wood. Ears <>t corn can be bought for ten cents per bushel, by 
measure, and seventy bushels, worth .-even dollars, will measure a cord. 
A cord of wood, including sawing, costs nine dollars ami fifty cents, 
which is two dollars ami fifty cents more than the cosl of corn, besides 
the tact that corn produces more heat than wood. If these statemi 
are true i ami we have no reason to doubl them) there is no fuel more 
economical than corn. The crop "t corn this year is tar beyond the 
demand." 

I see by the //■-,/, Agt that the importation of foreign 
goods into New York alone for some months past, has 
been at the rate of $ 370,000.000 per annum. 

I apprehend that if a small moiety of these goods 
had been manufactured in the United States, [llinois 
farmers might have done better with their corn than 
to burn even the smallest part of it. 

With great respect, 1 >. 1 ». ( !qne. 



PROM 



Tlie Iron ^V^'e. 



Special Correspondence. 

Washington, February, 18, 1867. 
In the last Iron Age you announce that : 

''The Union Pacific Railroad Company, East Division, disclaim any 
connection with the movement to induce Congress to rescind the provision 
of the law requiring the Pacific Railroad to use American iron, considering 
not only that they are bound in good faith to adhere to this provision of 
the contract, hut that the English rails now imported to this country arc- 
not such as they would wish, even if they had power to use them, in the 
construction of the great continental highway, which, being national in 
its location and management, should be built exclusively of national 
materials." 

You accompany the above statement with the expres- 
sion of a hope that it might be true. You certainly 
might, have made the expression much stronger, and 
gone further, by stating that the managers of the Union 
Pacific Eastern Division were among the firmest and 
best friends of the industrial interests of our country, 
as will be seen by the following petition : 

To the Finance Committee of the Senate, of the United States : 

We, the undersigned, respectfully represent — 

1. That in our opinion it is highly important for the interests of Ameri- 
can railroad companies, ami the builders and users of American machinery, 
thai tin liusiuixx of manufacturing Bessemer steel rails axles, boiler-plate, 
forgings, Sec, in this country should tie commenced and carried to such an 
extent that, in one of n-ar with a foreign power or other contingency, we may 
be capable of supplying our whole domestic demand. 

•j. That previous to the present extensive preparations in this country 
for producing Bessemer steel rail.--, forgings, &c, foreign agents charged 
$150 per ton in gold for the same rails that they reduced to Si 10 per ton in 
eohl when they became aware that such preparations were being made ; 
thus showing the necessity lor a home supply, in order thai the foreign 
article may lie obtained at a reasonable fate. 

:;. That we are credibly informed that large works for manufacturing 
Bessemer steel for rails, forgings, &c, are in course of erection at Troy, 
New York; Harrisburg and Chester, Pennsylvania; Cleveland. Ohio, and 
Detroit, Michigan: and that capable gentlemen are awaiting the result of 
the present action on the tariff bill before beginning to build works of the 



26 I in: [RON AGE. 



same kiml already planned, at Motl Haven, New York ; Pittsburgh, Johns- 
town, and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Baltimore, Maryland; Cincinnati, 
Ohio; and St. Louis, Missouri; which work.-, if built, will mure than 
supply the presenl domestic demand. 

Now . therefore, we respectfully ask that the House bill placing two and 
a half cents per pound duty on Bteel rails, and three and tour cents per 
ponnd on other articles of Bessemer steel of more difficult manufacture, be 
sustained, and that all steel rails contracted tor previous to July 1, 181 
be permitted to enter the country at tin- present duty of 45 per rent, ml 

.1. EDGAR THOMSON, President Pennsylvania Railroad Co.. .\ 

THOS. A. SCOTT, Via President Pennsylvania Railroad Co., Src. 

11.. I. LOMBAERT, Via President Pennsylvania Railroad Co., $c. 

M. 1'.. IIK'KMAN. Prest. West Cheater and Philadelphia Railroad Co. 

.1. D. PERRY, President fit",,, Pacific Railway Co., E. l>. 

\VM. .1. PALMER, Treasurer Union Pacific Railway Co., E. D. 

JOHN TUCKER, Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Co. 

.IAY COOKE, Banker. 

W'.M. C. BIODLE, Via President /.>/,>,//, Coal and Navigation Co. 

S. I'. ELY, of MarquetU <ni<l Bay dt Noquettt Railroad, Mi<~h. 

EDW. MILLER, oj Warren and Franklin Railroad, 

S. M. FELTON, Prest. Phila mid Halt. Central, Delaware. and Cht 

: R U Cos. 
NATHL. THAYER, Director of Michigan Central. 
ISAAC HINCKLEY, Prest. Phila., Wilmington and Bait. R. R. Co. 
ERASTUS CORNING, of New York Central Railroad Co., ,jc 
W. \V. LONGSTRETH, President Lehigh Valley Railroad Co. 
FREDK. FRAILEY, President Schuylkill Navigation Co. 
CHAS. E. SMITH. President Reading Railroad Co., ire. 
J.GREGORY SMITH. President Vermont Central Railroad Co., .*■. 
.1. 1 1. CAMERON, President Northern Central Railroad Co. 
It. N". RICE, General Superintendent Michigan Central Railroad Co. 
.1. B.SUTHERLAND, Michigan Central Railroad Co. 

The readers of The [RON Age are of course well aware 
that English rails of the first quality — equal to our 
American rails— cannot he delivered at any point in the 
United States for a less price than those of American 
manufacture. But inferior Welch rails can, of course, 
sell in our markets at l<>/r< r rates per ton than best ijitalitij 
American rails; and this fact is taken advantage of l>y 
the free traders who persist in drawing comparisons 
between the prices of the two articles without taking 
into consideration the difference in quality. 

I recently saw, in Missouri, a remarkable practical 
illustration of the difference between English ami 
American rails. 

The Hannihal and St. Joseph railroad was some years 
since furnished with English rails; and at the same 



IHE IRON AGE. 27 



time the south-west extension, or Platte Country road, 
was laid with rails manufactured by Messrs. Wood, 
Morrell & Co., of the Cambria Iron Works, at Johns- 
town, Pennsylvania. 

The same trains have gone over both roads, and, if 
anything, the American rails have been subjected to 
the most severe wear and tear ; notwithstanding which 
they are as sound as when put down, while the English 
rails are so shattered as to be useless, and are being 
replaced with new. 

My attention being particularly called to this subject, 
I took especial pains to observe, from the rear end of 
the train, the condition of the rails on both roads. I 
saw that the American rails, though worn smooth as 
with a file, were as sound, as when they came from the 
mill. In the whole forty miles, a careful examination 
discovered no more than five slightly splintered rails, 
the remainder being perfectly sound, though much worn. 
The English rails were, on the other hand, so badly 
splintered as to be nearly useless, and were being 
rapidly replaced with new'. 

I did. not learn the relative first cost of the plant stock 
of the two roads, but presume the English rails were 
purchased for a few dollars less per ton, and perhaps on 
long credit; but the question seemed settled in that 
portion of the country, at least, as to the relative cost 
of rails, in the long run, in favor of those manufactured 
in American mills, with American capital, by American 
mechanics, fed upon American food. 

The Union Pacific Railway Company, Eastern Divis- 
ion, having received a thirty years' loan from the 
Government of $1G,000 per mile for a portion of its 
road, to aid its construction, on condition that none but 
American iron is used, have shown no disposition to 
evade any portion of the contract, but, on the contrary, 
have gone beyond, and done more and better than has 
been required. 



THE IRON AGE. 



The Government regulation provides that American 
mils of at least fifty pounds weight to the yard shall be 
used. The company use fifty-six pounds per yard rails. 
or some ten tons per mile of American rails, more even 
than their contract requires, which I submit does not 
look much like evasion. 

I shall not in this letter trespass upon your space by 
fixing the responsibility of the Sherman amendment. 
having Bhov n that the eminent railway managers named 
in this are true friends of all our industrial interests. 
1 Leave it for others to find the guilty ones. I will. 
however, state that, of all the amendments offered, Mr. 
Sherman's is the most incomprehensible, and the reasons 
urged are very strange, when you consider by whom 
they were advanced. 

Certain railway corporations had received aid from 
the National Treasury on the express condition that the 
roads should lie built of American iron. 

Senator Sherman offers an amendment to a revenue 

bill, permitting these corporations to repudiate the latter 

portion of the contract, as follows : 

•• Ami any person or corporation may import and use railroad iron at 
any time within two var-. upon paying the duties imposed by law. any 
provision in any act of Congress i<> the contrary notwithstanding." 

In support of this astounding proposal, Senator 

Sherman said : 

■■This applies Bolelj to the Southern Pacific Railroad, and perhaps 
or two other railroad.- authorized by the United States. Tin- number of 
mill'.- to be built next year, according to the estimates submitted to us, is 
from five to sis hundred milts on the different branches of this road ; some 
say -r\ in hundred, there being three branches of the road now being con- 
structed, and the one on the Pacific slope, making four branches. Tin 
probable number of miles will be about live hundred 1 estimate at the 

i.e.- of about one hundred ton- of iron to the mile, sixty pound- to the 

yard, and that will make the requirements of these roads fifty thousand 
ton-. It thi- -hon Id be imported it will yield us a revenue of over -even 
hundred and titty thousand dollars. 

■■ A- 1 stated la-t night,, the mills of this country cannot supply all that 
is .It -in d. Large quantities are now imported ami laid down within 50 
miles of the rolling-mills. The present price of railroad iron, delivered 
on ship-hoard, abroad is between five and six pounds per ton,, or less than 
thirty dollar-. The present price of American iron i- $85 per ton. The 
restriction on the Dnion Pacific Railroad compels them to take all their 



T1IH IRON AGE. 29 



iron irom the interior ot Pennsylvania and the Atlantic slope, and thence 
around by Cape Horn to California. So with the branch roads; they are 
required to carry their iron by railroad transportation from the place of 
manufacture across the continent, now four hundred miles west of Omaha, 
while the English railroad iron can be brought in steam vessels and be 
landed at Omaha. The difference in cost to the railroad company will be 
considerable, while the revenue derived from this iron, ifimported, will 
lie about three-quarters of a million dollars. The rolling-mills will not he 
materially injured, because they are all kept in full blast, and if a dozen 
more were constructed they would have enough to do to supply the rail- 
roads of the United Slates with iron. 

"I think these are the only facts that bear upon it. I always 
thought the restriction a severe one, hut just now it is oppressive. If 
suspended for two years, by that time we may have rolling-mills enough 
in this country to supply the demand for railroad iron. So far as my 
State is concerned, we arc not at all interested in the matter : the roads 
are far beyond our reach ; hut I feel that it is just and right to this road, 
in which the United States have so large an interest, that this restriction 
should he removed. 

•• The amendment to the amendment was agreed to." 

This speech of Mr. (Sherman's is not only remarkable 
for what it contains, but for its omissions. He omits 
to state that fifty thousand tons of American iron will 
yield the National Treasury more revenue than the same 
amount of English iron. He omits to state that the 
mills of this country can supply all the iron needed ; 
that Pittsburgh, Pa., is nearer Omaha, Nebraska, than 
any port in England — all the way water transportation, 
at that. 

The Committee of Ways and Means have, very pro- 
perly, stricken out the amendment. It will, however, 
bear watching, that it don't get in again. 

D. D. C. 



FROM WASHINGTON. 

Special correspondence of Thk Ikon Age. 

Washington, Nov. 21, 1865. 

In 1857-8, the writer of this was engaged in the 
publication of the only daily newspaper between the 
Missouri river and the Rocky Mountains that took suffi- 
cient interest in the national policy to publish Mr. 
Henry C. Carey's admirable and unanswerable "Letters 
to the President." 



30 THE IRON AGE. 



Sine.- that period, the western people and prtsa have, 
to some extent, learned by costly experience, the litter 
fallacy of the shopkeeper's science. 

The Buffalo Express, of recent date, states that — 

"The Btandard of the value of a man- labor should, at Iea.-t. 
blished as to secare, with due economy, a decent Iivi-Iiliu.nl for himself 
ami those dependent upon him for support. In this country the reward 
of industry and toil should never fall below this point — indeed it cannot, 
without violating the fundamental law of our national existence which 
recognizes every man. woman, and child as entitled to the inalienable right 
of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In this country, the rewards 
of labor should be such as to elevate rather than depress the condition of 
the laboring classes. They arc endowed with the rights of citizenship, 
and hence should have the means of education for themselves and their 
children, so that they may exercise those rights with intelligence. This. 
to the laboring man. can come only of the fruits of his toil, and if they are 
stinted, then he is doomed to poverty, if not to absolute want ami starva- 
tion. He has not the mean- from his industry to educate his children, or 
clothe them bo that they i an decentlj appear in the street, at i hurch, or 
anywhere else, where the better influences will reach them and inspire 
them with feelings of si If respi 

The New York Krcnhnj I'<>*/ will of course be greatly 
shocked at this doctrine, for it has advocated in season 
and out of season, with a persistency worthy of abetter 
cause, a policy that has been found, by repeated costly 
experiment, to throw a large portion of our laboring 
classes out of employment, reduce the remainder to 
abject poverty, bring millions of capital; invested in 
manufactories, into the Sheriff's hands: and only to 
enrich a few office-holding money-lending aristocrats in 
this country and England. 

The Chicago Republican has the following article, and 
many more equally sound : 

"These manufacturers, it is said, are getting well paid. To sit down 
ami cry monopoly over this n ere but the peevish complaint of a weak child. 
li' ttt i go to work, with western swiftness and energy, and build our own 
mills. The held is open, the profits ready for whoever works for them ; 
and if those profits are excessive, fair competition will bring them to a 

proper level. 

••The bringing of gold toward par value to pave the way for specie 
payment-, will call fora readjustment of taxes ami tariffs, SO that Bome of 
our manufactures .-hall be fairly protected, and all branches oj our home 
industry experienci a common prosperity. The introduction of manufactures 
into the wesl is of more importance than many suppose. In I860, our 
factories and Bhops employed 222,325 persons, and produced articles to the 
amount of $390,411,000. Willi a wise policy of government, and with 

od, Btrong western work, Buch as is Bhown is the movemenl to build us 



THE IRON AGE. 31 



a woolen mill with $1,000,000 capital in Chicago, we can show the benefit 
of cheap food, and coal, and wool at our own doors, and illustrate anew 
the statement that manufactures must come where food and fuel arc most 
abundant, bu leading manufacturers to come among us from the seaboard and 
from across the ocean." 

Looking further West, 1 find in the Nemaha Courier, 
the only pioneer newspaper in Kansas that lias not 
changed hands, the following: 

"When a free trade tariff is in lone here, the flood of foreign goods 
pouring into the country is so great, and prices are so low that the Ameri- 
can manufacturer cannot compete successfully with his foreign pauper-labor 
rivals. Being unable to go on, he stops his factory, and every man in his 
employ is idle, and the American farmer's best market is thus destroyed ; 
for it is well known than 100, 000 employed American mechanics furnish a 
larger and better market for the American farmer than the whole of 
Europe. 

'• With unemployed mechanics and manufacturing operatives, the case 
is different, being thrown out of employment by the copperhead policy of 
free trade, they crowd into other avenues of employment, where, instead 
of being the American farmer's best customer, they become competitors." 

I could fill volumes with extracts like the above 
quoted; indeed, I find that a good portion of the West- 
ern Republican press are unanimous in their intelligent 
and patriotic determination to support the national 
protective policy. 

With great respect, D. D. C. 




ruoM in 1 : 



Kansas Grazette. 

D.D.&J.P. CONE,] Sept. 12. 1857. [PUBLISHERS. 

From the Kansas oa/.ette, November m. iv.t. 

THE MONEY STRINGENCY. 

When, in 1846, Robt. >I . Walker and other political 
bankrupts and gamblers of the Democratic party, in 
conjunction with the slave breeders of the South, inau- 
gurated the present free trade policy of government, by 
which the laws protecting American productions and 
home manufactures were repealed and all our industrial 
interests and laboring classes were thrown in direct 
competition with the manufactures of England and 
the old world, it was trumpeted far and wide as a mosl 
wise and beneficient measure. Although, as we have 
said, it was accomplished by a unio'n of reckless and 
unprincipled Northern Democratic doughfaces and the 
raw material and slave producers of tie- South, in utter 
disregard of the rights and interests of the laboring 
classes of the great free North and West, yet it was a 
"Democratic" measure, and the people must throw up 
their hats for it. and sing praises to the greatness and 
wisdom of its originators. Bui whal has been the result 
of this policy? Why in in years, notwithstanding the 
lucky discovery of California, by which hundreds of 
millions of dollars have flowed in the United Stat'-. 
this policy has depressed our ti nances and almost 
ruined the country, has taken all the money to buy the 
cheaply manufactured articles of Europe, ami crushed 



THE KANSAS GAZETTE. :'.:! 



and crippled our manufacturing and other industrial 
interests by putting them on an unequal footing and an 
unfair competition with the labor of Europe, as every 
one knows who is acquainted with the great compara- 
tive cheapness of living and laboring in the old world. 
This is the main or principal cause of all this depression 
and panic, and the exceedingly hard times among all 
classes ; and, until we have a change of government — 
until we put down and clear out the present ruling 
Democratic party, these hard times will continue and 
increase. In addition to the principal cause for this 
state of things which we have just adduced, there is 
still another, an additional reason for this stringent state 
of the money market and stagnation of industrial 
pursuits, something which has aided very materially in 
bringing about this state of things. It is the reckless 
and profligate manner in which the affairs of our Gov- 
ernment are administered and conducted under the aus- 
pices of the Democratic party. 

The dishonesty, stealing, and plundering of Demo- 
cratic office-holders and the corruption and extrava- 
gance of the Government expenditures has had, no 
doubt, very much to do in bringing about this deplora- 
ble state of affairs in our country. This dishonesty, 
corruption, and extravagance has reached an extent that 
is truly alarming. The amount now a days annually 
expended by the administration for corrupt party pur- 
poses is enormous, and the money now stolen yearly by 
the officials of our Government is enough to enrich a 
nation. These are facts that cannot be evaded or con- 
troverted, and as one of the independent press of the 
country we are bound to record them. 

Our people will learn by and by who are the real 
friends of home industry and American productions, 
and until they have been tried in the fire of affliction and 
learned by experience — bitter though it be — we are 



3 1 THE KANSAS GAZETTB. 

willing to wait for the overthrow of the Democratic 
party and an entire change of the policy of the Govern- 
ment : nothing else can correct the abuses of its ad- 
ministration. 



FROM BOSTON. 

Special Correspondence of tin- K INSA8 GAZBTTB. 

Huston, August 30, 1858. 

The times are not as hard in Boston as throughout 
the West. They can live longer on their capital in 
the cities because there is more of it ; but nine tenths 
of the business men of Boston are not, and have not 
for the last year, been .paying expenses. This I know 
to be a fact. 

A Boston paper recently published an article prov- 
ing this city to be thirty-eight million dollars ($38,- 
01 )i 1. 1 ii ii i) poorer than a year ago. 

The same journal attributes this loss to the Anti 
Slavery Agitation prevalent throughout the country. 

Of course the Pro Slavery Agitation was not taken 
into consideration by that very impartial journalist. 

The party that destroys five printing establishments, 
and several small towns in one Territory of our Union, 
during the past twenty months, cannot be called to an 
account for Agitation ! Oh, no ! 

Another Boston wiseacre attributes the present con- 
traction of business to an undue expansion of crinolii 
— another to the open winter of 1857-58 — while lar 
numbers know the true cause, viz: That policy which 
sends three dollars out of the country for every two it 
brings in : the policy that discriminates against the 
labor and capital of our own country; a policy inaugu- 
rated and sustained by the so-called •• National Democ- 
racy." D. 1>. Cone. 



FTC03I TIIK 



pimala, fjUttisais, (Rtntitt. 

( Formerly tlie Kansas Gazette.) 



d. d. ij. p. cone,] March 14, 1867. [publishers. 

From The Courier of March 14, 1867. 

THE KANSAS LEGISLATURE ON THE TARIFF 

QUESTION. 

We have for ten years past endeavored to impress 
upon the minds of our readers the necessity of protecting 
American industry in our own markets against a ruin- 
ous competition with the pauper labor system of the old 
world. 

It is, therefore, gratifying to find our Legislature 
promptly sustaining the principles we have so long 
labored to popularize. 

Early in the session, Mr. McFarland, a Democratic 
Senator from Leavenworth, introduced resolutions in- 
structing our delegates in Congress to favor a system 
of low tariffs. Thev were referred to the Committee on 
Federal Relations, of which Dr. John W. Scott, of Iola, 
Allen County, is Chairman, who made the following 
report : 

"The resolution contains two propositions. 1st. That it is the duty of 
our members in Congress to encourage a system of free trade or low tariffs 
on foreign goods. 2d. That it is their duty to protect the agricultural 
interests of the West. 

''These propositions the committee regard as essentially inconsistent. 
While it is clearly the duty of our Representatives to protect the agricul- 
tural interests of the West, it is equally evident that this cannot be done 
by any system of free trade or low tariffs. On the contrary, no surer 
means could be adopted to depress and utterly destroy the prosperity of 
Kansas and the other great agricultural Stales of the West. The first 
necessity of these States is a market for their surplus products, and this 
can only lie furnished to anv considerable extent by a manufacturing 



36 THE NEMAHA C01 BIER. 



population, either in America or Europe. But the nearer this market is to 
the producer th< _■ ter are his profits, inasmuch as he reaps to a lai 
extent the benefits of the diminish Ttation. 

■■ It must be clear, then, that the system of free trade which inevitably 
tends i" build u|> the manufacturing interests of Europe at the exj 
those of America, and so places an oc< in between the producer and 
consumer, musl impoverish the former while it enriches the latter. 

"The experience of the world proves this. Manufacturing nations are 
always rich, exclusively agricultural nations are always poor, and the 
latter invariably pay tribute to the former. That country which would 
be really free and independent must foster and encoun s ry branch of 

domestic industry by protecting them against ruinous competition from 
abroad. 

"In the opinion, therefore, of your committee, the true policy of 
America is to adopt such a system of discriminating and protective tariffs 
as shall transfer the skilled operatives of the Old World to the factories ot 
the New. build up manufacturing establishments, not only in New England, 
but in every town and village in the land, and so, bringing the produ 
and consumer face to tare, insure the highest prosperity to both. 

" They therefore recommend that the first section of the resolution be 
amended as follows : Strike out all after the word 'encourage,' and ins 
American manufactures and protect them against the ruinous competition 

of foreign nations, and that so amended it be passed." 

The resolution as amended avid passed, is as follows: 

■• A' '< •"'. That it is the duty of our membi rs in Congress to enco 

American manufactures, and protect them against the ruinous competition 
of foreign nation-. And that it is their duty to protect the agricultural 
interests of the West." 

We hope "iir ( longressional delegates will act promptly 
in this business 

There need he no misunderstanding in the matter; 
The report ami resolutions are explicit, and show how 
both the manufacturing and agricultural interests are 
encouraged and protected by the same policy. There 
is no antagonism between the two interests ; what pro- 
tects "if' protects both. 

< )ur members certainly need do more lessons from the 
( 'ourier. 



Note — Tin- Iron .(.</< of March 28, republishes the above with the 
following comments: "We take the above from the Kansas Courier, a 
journal thai faithfully and steadily labors in that far off land of hope and 
promise for the protection and advancement of American industry, h 
shows that in the growing States of the West there are. after all. those, 
who understand the true interests of the people on this subject. Surely 
the wealth} and enlightened people of the East, who know tin- value and 
imitating and upholding the principles of A protection 

should sustain such missionaries of their doctrines at the West 



THE NEMAHA COURIER. 37 

From The Coukieb of Feb. 28, 1867. 

THE COST OF PAPER. 



It is cot often that we find the New York Tribuin and 
Herald in agreement upon any subject whatever. But 
in regard to the cost of printing paper, the views of 
both journals are so sound and in strict accordance with 
plain common sense, and so plainly in the interest of 
both newspaper proprietors and subscribers, that we 
reproduce them. The New York Tribune says: 

"A Western journal — which seems unable to comprehend any other 
than a sordid motive for any human act — -calculates that the TVibune lost 
$83,000 during l8G<j by the existing duty (20 per cent.) on printing 
paper, which (it says) would have been abolished by Congress but for our 
opposition. Then, we say. we prevented Congress, at our own cost, from 
doing a great wrong to an important interest 'and to American labor. We 
cannot see how a duty of 20 per cent, can plausibly be stigmatized as 
prohibitory or oppressive; and we insist that it would be unjust and 
unpatriotic to require our paper-makers to pay income and other heavy 
taxes, yet compete in open markets with foreigners who bear much lighter 
burdens. Much of our paper, for example, is manufactured at Niagara 
Falls, but on the American side. Admit foreign paper free of duty, and 
the makers would almost inevitably be driven across the river to avoid 
t le heavy imposts they now pay on Bleaching Powders, &c. and to escape 
the general burdens imposed on our people by the late war. There may be 
Tribunes which would regard this with indifference, but this one is of 
another sort. 

•• That a little paper might be imported cheaper, in the absence of any 
duty, than it is now afforded by American paper-makers, we know: but 
it by no means follows that a great deal might lie. On the contrary. 
were half the paper used in this country imported, we believe the foreign 
price would thereby he carried up to the present American standard. 

•Oui' American paper-makers have been making large profits for the 
last three or four years — making them under a twenty per cent, tariff. 
Had the duty been forty or fifty percent . with no fear of its reduction, we 
believe the price of paper would have long since been cheapened by the 
erection of new mills or the enlargement of old ones. ]!ut the clamor for 
the free importation of paper has kept men of enterprise from risking their 
means in a business which seemed so precarious; and thus the price of 
paper has been kept up by a deficiency in the home supply. We greatly 
need cheaper paper : but we believe the road to it lies through protection, 
not free trade." 

Upon the same subject the New York Herald has the 
following settler : 

"There is a movement on foot to induce Congress to repeal the duty on 
paper. This movement originates out West, and with the editors of 
Republican papers. Some time ago a number of these editors, principally 
of Chicago and St. Eouis papers, met ami made their arrangements in the 
usual way to influence Congress on this subject. They adopted resolutions. 
appointed committees, delegates, and so on. Their resolutions denounced 



38 THE NEMAHA COURIER. 

the duty as onerous to publishers and not beneficial to the Treasury ; and 
their committees and delegates were sent around to influential persons, 
and in all way.- to make as much outside press - possible. We have 

been visited on the subject, and were at first plain'- disposed to aid in the 
movement, but <m a little reflection, we are opposed to the whole thing. 
We are in favor of the duty, and it' Congress is disposed to increase it to 
one hundred or even five hundred percent, it will be quite agreeal le to us. 
i: in our opinion, the Western editors look at this subject through n 
pinhole, and, consequently, only see a very small part of it. They never 
consider thesubject in any light Bave that of their own particular interest, 
and, consequently, they do not understand it at all; they see that the 
price of paper is high, and they put down their heads and rush at the duty. 
which they suppose to be the cause ; but they rush in the wrong direction. 
The high price of paper is not in consequent e of the duty, and an import 
duty cannot have any but the most temporary influence on that price. 
Import duties cannot have any permanent effect on articles that can be 
produced here of a satisfactory quality, [fan article can be made hep 
well as in foreign countries, heavy import duties will only affect the place 
where it is made. Import duties on such articles merely stimulate 
domestic manufacture. But, says the man who look- through the pinhole, 
import duties also protect domestic manufacture, and the high duty that 
make- the imported article dearer, also makes the domestic article bring a 
higher price. This is not true. Import duties give the market to the 
domestic product, and the price of the dome-tic product is regulated not 
by that fact, but by demand and competition. If the price of paper is very 
high, and the demand is great, paper manufactories will spring abundantly 
into existence wherever capital seeks investment, and prices will find their 
natural level." 

It is astonishing that paper consumers cannot 
that the high price of the article is caused by the exces- 
sive internal revenue tax. and that the only way to 
lower it, is to encourage the production in this country, 
hf lowering the tax on home production, and increasing 
it on foreign, leaving it for home competition to keep the 
price down to living rates. 

In Is is '.i our British enemies sent to the United 
States some 200,000 tuns of iron at $40 per ton, or 
$10 per ton less than American manufacturers could 
make it, making an appan ul saving to our iron consum- 
ers, of $2,000,000. 

In one year nearly all American iron manufactories 
were killed oil', and from 1850 to 1854, inclusive, the 
British, having a monopoly, charged American consum- 
ers ssn per ton for 1 ,200, (MM) tons, so that the American 
consumers, in order to save $2,000,000, ruined their 
own manufactures, and afterwards paid the British 



Till; XK.M.UIA COURIER. 39 



$34,000,000 more for iron than the American manu- 
facturer would gladly have furnished it for. To say 
nothing of the destruction of the market for agricultural 
products caused by stopping furnaces, &c. 

The leading railroad men throughout the Union, 
profiting by such experience, have accordingly recently 
petitioned Congress to increase the duty on all kinds of 
railway iron. 

Manifestly, then, it is the interest of the consumers 
of paper to use every possible means to increase the 
production of it in this country. Competition will keep 
the price at the lowest living rates. 



THE BEST PLAN. 



Hon. Stephen Colwell, of Philadelphia, who is per- 
haps better acquainted with our industrial interests and 
the protective policy in all its details than any person 
now living, suggests the idea of a sliding scale, which, 
we think, is the most judicious recommendation yet 
made on this subject. It is to fix a fair rate of duties 
sufficiently protective while they are not prohibitory, 
and then to authorize the Secretary of the Treasury, 
whenever the exportations do not exceed the importa- 
tions, say 8 or 10 per cent., (exclusive of coin,) to increase 
the rates of duties, say 15 per cent., until the exporta- 
tions exceed the importations, say 8 or 10 per cent. 
This would obviate any disturbing legislation by Con- 
gress, and would prove to be an effectual check against 
excessive importations, and thus keep our proportion of 
coin in the country. 

This plan will somewhat abridge the power of the 
Secretary of the Treasury ; but it is none the worse for 
that. 



In 1111. Xl.M \\i A i "| BIBB. 

FROM WASHINGTON. 

Hard Times— Reports from all parts of the Union— The 
cause— High Taxes on Home Industry, and low Taxes 
on Foreign, &c. 

Special corresj lenceofTHi Cot biek. 

Office United Press Association, 

Washington, Feb. 25, 1867. 

Members of Congress, as a general thing, have little 
or no time to read or give tbe business of legislation 
much thought. 

In order to get any subject before many of these 
u 'iitlemen, engrossed as they are in looking after their 
own re-nominations, re-elections and political chicanery. 
generally, it must be brief and to the point. 

I beg, therefore, to present a few facts demanding 
immediate attention. 

The New York correspondent of the Boston Journal 

writes, under date of 31st ultimo, thus : 

All kinds of business is dull. Young men are pouring by hundreds 
into New York for employment, only to swell the rank of the* thousands 
who have nothing to <lo. Discharges from stores, factories, and ware- 
houses are taking place every day. It bears, especially, hard on laboring 
people, on mechanics, the better class of workmen, sewing women and 
girls, who just live under the best of circumstances. Heart rending 
instances of suffering and want are detailed daily. Those who make their 
rounds the homes of the lowly recite touching cares of want 

among the honesl poor, w ho would be glad to earn a living it' they could.'! 

The Nashua, [owa, correspondent of the Missouri 
Ucimirraf writes, under date of 9th inst., thus: 

"Hard times are now the absorbing topic in this part of the country. 
The reasons assigned are numberless; the last crop being unusually light, 
and pork exceedingly low, tanners realize bul little from th< ir year's labor. 
Therefore, their debts in manj cases cannot be paid, and business of all kinds 
bas dropped off very much." 

The Pittsburg Commercial, of the 9th instant, states 
thai : 

■• We understand thai at a conference of the members of the Pittsburg 
Iron Association, it was unanimously agreed that there was nothing to 
justify a resumption of operation by the mills at present." 



THE NEMAHA COURIER. 41 



The Iron Age of the 14th instant, states that : 

■• Already manufactures of every kiml wait upon the action of Congress 
in regard to the tariff, and upon that action depends whether we shall have 
a restoration of healthy vigorous time, or a trade of universal and disas- 
trous depression." 

I suppose we should never weary of well doing. But 
I really tire of proving, over and over again, the fact 
that our hard times are attributable solely to excessive 
importations of iron, steel, wool, cloth, wheat, barley, 
and other products of foreign labor and capital ; and 
paying therefor money or bonds which should be 
retained at home. 

The Free Press, of Detroit, states that 28,000 bushels 
of wheat, and 53,900 bushels of barley were imported 
into that city alone, during the month of October last, 
all of which must be paid for in gold that should have 
been distributed among the tax paying farmers of the 
United States. 

For two years past, our every industrial interest has 
been struggling, overtaxed,- against an under taxed 
foreign competition. 

For two years past, Congress has persistently discrim- 
inated against American labor and capital in our own 
markets, all the while protesting that the majority 
of that body was all right. 

For two years past, have an over taxed people waited 
for Congress to give them an equal chance in their own 
markets with foreign competitors ; but in vain. 

It will not answer longer to plead the "President's 
policy" in the premises. Congress has opposed the 
people's policy with as much or more determination 
than it has the President's. 

Nor will it answer for Congress to plead ignorance, 
as they often do, of our industrial interest's needs. 

The Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, 



\2 THE X EM All \ COURIER. 



in a recent sj eh, thus admits the pressing necessity of 

immediate action. 

•• It' there are any gentlemen who disbelieve the recitals concerning idle 
factories, forge furnaces, and foundries, and who think we are still on 
the top wave of prosperity, 1 invite them to look at the comparative returns 
of Borne of our principal railroads, to the decline in the commerce of our 
canals, to our diminished export trade in cattle, horses. hogs, beef, butter, 
cotton, and manufacture of cotton, wool, iron, copper, and brass, together 
with numerous other articles. This exposition, of which I have the 
details, hut which I shall not, unless compelled to do so, place upon 
record. 

It is about time for the people to pass judgment 
upon their unfaithful public servants. The Repub- 
licans of Connecticut and New Hampshire have made 
a beginning by discarding nearly every member in 
both houses, having, with but two exceptions, refused 
to renominate any of their present members. It is 
hoped that other States will follow an example so 
worthy. 

It is not, however, necessary that, because a portion 
of our Republican members have proved themselves 
utterly unworthy, we should rush into the embraces 
of the copperheads ; though the course of those members 
who pay more attention to private Congressional jobbing 
than to the public welfare, will have a tendency to 
bring about that result. 

There are altogether too many jobbing politicians in 

Congress; they should be exchanged for statesmen as 

soon as possible, or the days of the Republican party 

are numbered. 

D. D. C. 



J/'JIOAE Tin: 



(3 
It 



an gunmm ^mtitun <fk§ 



Special Correspondence. 

Office United Press Association, 

Washington, August 18, 1865. 

Movements founded principally on the idea of charity, 
are being made in our largest cities, to provide for our 
returned soldiers. 

Men of wealth are exhorted to give employment 
whether they have it to give or not. 

The idea that our returned soldiers might and should 
be furnished with profitable employment as a right 
rather than a charity, seems not to be entertained. 

Are our manufacturers able to give these returned 
heroes permanent and profitable employment? If not, 
why ? 

An answer can be found by an examination of the 
condition of our iron interests, as shown by the reports 
of the members of the Iron and Steel Association, at a 
meeting in Chicago, in May last. Several interesting 
statistical reports from members as to the condition of 
their respective works were presented. In south-eastern 
Ohio, there were reported four rolling mills, with a 
capacity of sixteen thousand tons per annum, when 
running full time, but all idle now ; also forty blast 
furnaces, which can produce sixty thousand tons of 
charcoal pig metal, will this year produce about thirty 



II rHE SAN FRANCISCO IMERII \.\ FLAG. 



thousand tons. The furnaces on and near the Alleghany 
river, Pennsylvania, number about twenty, which, 
when in full blast, made about one hundred thousand 
tons per annum. Only about eight of these furnaces 
are now in blast. Out of aine blast furnaces in the 
Stat.- of Missouri, making annually, when in full blast, 
about forty-five thousand tons, but three arc now run- 
ning. Of four Mast furnaces at and near hetn.it. one 
only is in operation. Pittsburg has twenty-live rolling 
mills, with a capacity of producing eight to nine 
hundred tons of finished iron and nails daily. These 
mills are not averaging more than a quarter time at 
present. There are live blast furnaces in that city. 
each having a capacity to produce twenty-five I »ns ol 
pig iron per day ; hut two of them arc now in full blast. 
The production of bloom iron in the counties bordering 
on Lake Champlain, New York, is about one-third, of 
that of last year. Many forges are idle, others working 
on half time. Other reports from districts represented 
in the Convention showed a similar depressed condition 
of the iron business in all parts of the country, with 
hardly an exception. 

Let it he remembered in this connection, that one 
hundred thousand employed workmen in these American 
manufactories furnish a market for more American farm 
produce than the entire British nation. With our 
unemployed workmen, the case is different; they crowd 
other avenues of employment, especially the agricultural, 
where, instead of being purchasers, they are competitors. 

Since the>e reports were made, the condition of our 
iron interests has been continually growing worse. 
Thousands of laborers have been thrown out of employ- 
ment, to compete in the labor market with returned 
soldiers, and to make room for the products of British 
iron works. 



THE SAX FRANCISCO AMERICAN FLAG. 45 

The following extracts from a letter from one of our 
most distinguished representatives in England, was 
recently received here. It shows conclusively what 
efforts are being made to break down our labor market; 
that the builders of British pirate steamers may do our 
manufacturing, while our returned heroes are patrolling 
the streets, asking for employment which our manufac- 
turers cannot furnish : 

"Greal efforts will now be made by English capitalists and manufac- 
turers to induce us to reduce our taritls. and permit them to do all our 
manufacturing. Tin van- beginning to stir this matter already. Our 
warm personal friends will be put forward to move the matter — such men 
as John Bright. Goldwin Smith, and others, who have stood by us through 
this war. I have seen decisive evidence of this purpose here. Personally, 
we owe them very much, hut we may frightfully abominate their free trade 
principles. They will struggle hard to break down our tariff. See if this 
does not prove true. There will lie a terrible pressure upon the 
Government." 

So it appears that our British " warm personal 
friends," after having destroyed nearly two-thirds of 
our manufacturing interests and thrown thousands of 
our workmen out of employment, are preparing, with 
the hearty co-operation of our ex-rebel interest, to deal 
a finishing blow to the remaining third. Save me from 
such warm personal friends ; give me the Lairds in 
preference. 

I notice that Hon. S. S. Cox and several prominent 
representatives of British Tammany Hall and rebel 
interests, are announced in a recent money article of the 
New York Times as having formed a " Free Trade 
League." The direct tendency, and probably the sole 
object of the league is to break down our free labor 
interests, and build up the British and new party inter- 
ests in this country, in order that demagogues may rule 
and the late slave aristocracy may revive. It is inter- 
esting to observe that though the so-called Southern 
Confederacy lives only in spirit and enmity to free labor, 
it has the full sympathy of the capitalists of Great 
Britain. 



4D THE SAX FRANCISCO AMERICAN PLAG. 

It may be asked, is there a demand for the products 
of our closed manufactories? I answer unhesitatingly 

there is. We are consuming more foreign goods than 
we are exporting domestic produce; and to supply the 
deficiency, this country has been compelled to export 
an average of $'2,000,000 of gold per week daring the 
past three months. 

Now, as to these wealthy English manufacturers, 
these builders of pirate steamers that have destroyed 
our commerce, will they furnish employment tor our 
discharged laborers? What part of the $2,000,000 in 

gold that we have been so kind as to send them each 
week will they pay to American workmen. to he paid 
in turn by them for American food, American cloths. 
and other American necessaries of liter 1 What part 
will they pay to our returned heroes who parade our 
streets asking not charity, but work ? 

I clip the following from a late New York Herald : 

"Vbtb&ahb on a Strikk. — Some one says, that the sadest sight" under 
the sun, is that of a man who wants employment and is nut able to get it. 
Such a sight was presented to our citizens yesterday. A procession of 
veterans, out of employment and anxious to work, passed our office, with 
banners bearing appropriate inscriptions. 1 1 was a strike y<i veterans, who 
nided in putting down the rebellion, not for higher wages nor for higher 
law. but for work — work. It is the duty of our citizens and of the Gov- 
ernment to see that such men have employment, so that their families may 
not becom pelled to starve or to eat the bread of charity." 

It appears, therefore, that we have men willing to 
work, and money to pay them ; but our politicians in 
Congress adopt a policy that takes the money from the 
hands of our laborers and sends it to be distributed 
among the wealthy capitalists and Laboring classes of 
England, and then, with a degree of impudent igno- 
rance, t ruly astonishing, ask our manufacturers "to 

give" the returned soldiers employment. <'onu r ress 

was warned last session that its present policy was 
taking employment and food from the Laboring class* -. 



CONCLUSION. 47 



but it turned a deaf ear, and now closed manufactories, 
unemployed workmen, and returned soldiers by hun- 
dreds of thousands ask in vain for employment, while 
manufactories owned by builders of British pirates are 
in full operation. 

Let the subject, then, be well ventilated ; let the 
people demand that Congress shall adopt a policy that 
will give employment to our workmen and capital, in 
preference to those of any foreign nation, especially 
those of our natural enemies — the English. 

Our workingmen are the consumers of the product of 
American industry, the supporters of our Government 
at home and on the battle-field. For these and other 
reasons they should have the preference. 

Yours, for our country as it should be, 

D. D. Cone. 



CONCLUSION. 



These letters, it will be observed, were originally 
published in leading newspapers, in different States 
between New England and California, having an ag- 
gregate circulation of over half a million copies. 
The letter dated March 24, 1800, on page 5, had a 
circulation of over 300,000 copies before the present 
edition. It will be seen, therefore, that the United Press 



•I N CONCLUSION. 



Association has clone at least, thus far, its full share in 
the work of spreading the truth in regard to the proper 
protective ]"dicy of our Nation. 

In response to this pamphlet, the author has received 
letters from all parts of the Union; the spirit of which 
can be seen from the following extracts: 

A'Northern farmer writes — 

" I have received ami read your letters on protection You an- doing a 
pood work for the country." 

A Western farmer writes 

■• I am extremely anxious that the Republican party .-hall take the right 
side on the question of protection, ami 1 -hall labor for that. I have 
your letters ami prize them highly. Will lie pleased to receive any other 
documents relating to the subject yon may semi." 

A Western member of Congress writes— 

■• 1 have read with great interest your pamphlet letters, ami am rejoiced 
tli.it active measures are being taken to counteract the miserable heresies 
of the Free Trade League."' 

An eminent banker writes — 

" It is evident yon have given the subject careful ami patient Study, ami 
i congratulate yon upon the successful use you have made of the informa- 
tion thus acquired.' 

A Northern member of Congress writes — 

■■ Permit me to thank you for your effective letter in Th. North American 
of the 24th inst. Would thai you could arouse those specially interested 
to a consciousness of the dangers by which our manufacturing interests 
are threatened. You at least, if ruin overtakes us, can feel that you have 
done vour duty." 



W 80 




n-V;uihuiiyton fpftte 



u\S 



ro mi': 



Vermont Journal, Connecticut Courant, N.Y. Tribune, Iron Age, 

Buffalo Express, North American & United States Gazette, 

Virginia State Journal, North Carolina Union Banner, 

Brownlow's Knoxville Whig, S. Carolina Leader, 

Missouri Democrat, Nemaha Courier, 

Atchison Free Press, 

Rocky Mountain News, and San Francisco American Flag, 



BY 



D; D. CONE, President 



OF 



THE UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION 



Eighth Edition, 



V 







PUBLISHED BY 

HE DNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION. 
WASUINGTON. 
1867. 



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